Reader comments
This hasn't happened to us yet. At least, I don't think a commenter on a story has corrected information in the story. It happens on the blogs with some frequency, though. Roy Williams -- no, not that one -- did it yesterday here.
Why not on the stories themselves? Our story comment feature isn't as elegant as commenting on blogs. That is, it's awkward and complicated. And it's harder for our staff to monitor the comments as they come in.
Grindley, referring to the fears of some print journalists: If commenters actively try to debunk reporting it might disenfranchise readers. Or, they worry about confusion created by presenting readers' opinions on the same page as what is supposed to be objective reporting.
We've long since gotten over that. We know that individual readers know more about individual stories than we do. I learned that when I was writing editorials. It's humbling to weigh in with an opinion on a topic when you know there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people who know more about the topic than you.
He goes on: Readers are smarter than they're given credit. Not only can they tell the difference between what is from the newspaper and what isn't, but also they appreciate the attempt at transparency.
Yep.
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